His first two series looked at the history of 20th century Britain. Now Andrew Marr is broadening his canvas and following in the footsteps of Kenneth Clark's acclaimed Civilisation with his small screen take on 20,000 years of human history.

Marr's History of the World promises "dramatic reconstruction, computer graphics and gripping storytelling" to reveal the "events, conflicts and characters that have shaped our destiny".

History of the World will combine dramatic reconstruction with the latest computer imagery to recreate lost worlds and "freeze time" at decisive moments in history, according to the BBC, "from Cleopatra's encounter with an asp and Marco Polo's journey along the Silk Road to China to the arrest of Marie Antoinette and the firing of a bullet in Sarajevo in 1914, this will be the definitive account of human civilisation".

Jana Bennett, the director of BBC Vision, said: "History of the World will use the most cutting-edge production techniques married to Andrew Marr's expertise to tell the ultimate, universal story of humankind.

"It is an ideal project for our partners globally – it is through working with the likes of Discovery Channel, the Open University and BBC Worldwide that we can continue to produce projects with the scale and scope of History of the World, maintaining the BBC's reputation for the most ambitious and creative landmark factual programming and providing exceptional value for licence fee payers."

Marr's Bafta-winning History of Modern Britain, about the history of the UK between 1945 and the present day, aired on BBC2 in 2007. It was followed by 2009's The Making of Modern Britain, also on BBC2, about the period between the death of Queen Victoria and the outbreak of the second world war.

Martin Davidson, the BBC commissioning editor, history and business, said: "History of the World is the perfect fit for BBC1 – it's bold, it's visually spectacular and it's truly epic in scale.

"I'm delighted that Andrew Marr is bringing his formidable skills to bear on the most significant story we can ever hope to tell. This is history at its richest and most revelatory."

History of the World is the latest co-production to emerge from the BBC's tie-up with Discovery, including Blue Planet, Life, and next year's Frozen Planet, which was recently extended to 2014 but saw their global TV channels joint venture come to an end.